Cranes are important to heavy industry where there is a need to hoist and move heavy loads from one location to another within the crane's service area. Since these loads can be extremely heavy and can include molten metals in the iron and steel industries, it can easily be seen that an automatic braking system to stop the lowering of the load during abnormal conditions is important. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/067,119, entitled "A Circuit for Automatic Operation a Series Brake Upon Power Loss During a Regenerative Braking Period", and incorporated herein by reference, addresses conditions of power loss to the crane motor and control circuits. There is, however, another condition that can adversely effect the normal lowering process and setting of a series brake during an overhauling condition due to a heavy load. This condition is a loss of current in the armature circuit of the dynamic lowering motor while current from the power source continues to flow in the rest of the motor circuit, including the series field and series-wound coil controlling the setting of the series brake and in motor control circuit. During normal lowering operations, current flowing in the armature and series field is controlled in such a manner as to produce a counter-torque in the motor. This counter-torque opposes the accelerating downward movement of the crane's load. To produce this counter-torque there must be current flow in both the series field and the armature. A loss of current in the series field would also result in a loss of current in the series-wound solenoid coil controlling the series brake, thus setting the series brake. However, a loss of current in the armature would not set the series brake and the load would continue to fall. It is therefore important that circuitry for detecting armature current loss and setting of the series brake be included in the crane control circuit.